Is penn foster college college accredited in ny state?

Answer 1

Answer 1: States don't accredit. Er... well... wait a minute, New York does; but only because it's approved, just like any other legitimate accreditor, by the US Department of Education (USDE), and also by the USDE-sanctioned Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) to be its own real and legitimate accreditor. New York is exceptional in that.

All other US states, though, merely "approve" schools to operate within their borders. And such approval is not the same as accreditation.

Only agencies that are approved by USDE and/or CHEA (which, exceptionally, happens to include New York, but not Indiana or any other state) may accredit.

Penn Foster's college programs are accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC), which is a "national" (as opposed to "regional") accreditor that's both USDE- and CHEA-approved.

Penn Foster's high-school program is "regionally" accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, a "regional" (as opposed to "national") accreditor that's both USDE- and CHEA-approved.

It is, of course, also approved to operate by the State of Pennsylvania; and, trust me, that's one state approval that's hard to get. Even the "regionally" accredited ITT Technical institute can't pass muster with the state of Pennsylvania to offer Bachelors Degrees! ITT can offer "regionally" accredited bachelors degrees in ever US state except Pennsylvania. That state is very tough about approving colleges and universities to operate within its borders! So Penn Foster's having passed muster with just the State of Pennsylvania is actually quite impressive.

However, in addition, it's completely accredited by USDE- and CHEA-approved agencies, so nothing to worry about.

It also has some other accreditations and approvals. See it's accrediation web page.

And, for future reference, all anyone has to do to find out if any school is accredited by a USDE- and/or CHEA-approved agency (which is the only kind of accreditation there is in the US), is take 30 to 60 seconds -- literally only that long -- to look-up the school in either or both of the USDE and/or CHEA databases, on their respective websites. If a given school isn't in at least one of those two databases, then it's notaccredited... not matter what it claims on its website (and, believe me, if it's a degree mill, it'll lie and claim it's accredited when really isn't). Because there are some accreditors that are approved by USDE, but not CHEA (and vice versa), do look-up the school in the second database if you don't find it in the first. But as long as the school is in at least one of those two databases, then it is positively accredited.

Links to the USDE and CHEA databases may be found in the "sources and related links" section of this web page, below.